Affecting tens of millions of people, cataracts are the most common cause of blindness worldwide. The current and only course of treatment is eye surgery to remove the affected lens. This type of invasive procedure is not ideal in developing countries where access to surgical care is limited; and as such, cataracts are associated with higher morbidity in such places. In developed nations, surgical removal is also not ideal as the sheer prevalence of the disease among the ageing population means that cataract surgeries amount to a significant portion of healthcare costs. As such, there exists a need to develop new treatments for treating cataracts that do not require surgery.
Protein aggregation has been implicated as one of the primary contributory factors for cataract formation. Described herein are compounds that inhibit or prevent protein aggregation.